This book is a one trick pony, but it nails its subject matter cold. If you know anything about the vintage guitar market you already know that the Gibson Les Pauls made between 1958 and 1960 are some of the most valuable and highly sought after instruments ever made. The people that collect them are absolute freaks when it comes to amassing encyclopedic knowledge of every minute detail that relates in any way to the construction and performance of these guitars. This book is tailor made for those 'Burst-a-holics.

The book is also a terrific coffee table book for any guitar collector, or enthusiast who shares the love and interest of high end collectors for this celebrated model but doesn't have a few million dollars in spare cash kicking around the house to build a collection of 'bursts. The photographs are magnificent and the book on the whole does a marvelous job of entertaining and informing. It's like buying a multi-million dollar guitar collection for the price of the book. You don't get to play them and hold them, but you sure can look at them and learn all there is to know about why they play and sound the way they do.

Functional sculpture . . . that's what a vintage Les Paul really is and this book does both the art and the craft of the historic '58-'60 Les Pauls justice.

I admit it, I am addicted to *properly photographed guitars*. A book like this is the perfect fix. Iwanade's book is the ultimate reference to these very special guitars.

If you, like me, have G.A.S. (Guitar Acquisition Syndrome), this book might just get you through a tough weekend where you might have purchased yet another guitar. Darn, I should have read it again this weekend... I could have saved a bunch!

What I admire most about this outstanding book is that the author takes a back seat to the guitars themselves; and lets face it, long after we're gone these fantastic instruments will be valued and treasured. This book could only have been created by someone who really loves the old Les Paul, and turning the pages makes me love them too. I only wish the page size was maybe 4 or 5 times as big! This is a very special book, and I appreciate the intelligence of the author in presenting these guitars in the way that he has.

This book may not rival other books by the same author, but it does indeed provide a nice, compact story of how the Gibson Les Paul came to be, how the deal for it was set and its evolution. Deep research, presented in a very down to earth language, help the Les Paul enthusiast learn about the instrument and its different incarnations. Although the book could've used more pictures (or at least, different, detailed shots of the ones included) all the pics are in great color, and most of the models are shown here. In all, a great book about one of the finest musical instruments of the century.

50 Years Of The Gibson Les Paul by music author and guitar expert Tony Bacon is a superbly presented and succinct history of a classic model of electronic guitar invented by the legendary Les Paul and which was originally launched in 1952, going on to be favored by grand musicians throughout the last half century. Photographs enhance and illustrate this landmark presentation of the Gibson Les Paul's creation, and its prevalence in every decade to the modern day. A detailed, informative, highly readable and welcome presentation, 50 Years Of The Gibson Les Paul is especially recommended for the legions of Les Paul fans and electric guitar enthusiasts.

Read this in conjunction with Intro to Film Studies ( ed Nelmes - Routledge) and Intro to Documentary Film ( ed Kochberg - Wallflower) and your reading list has a firm foundtion for your success. A common factor to both is uber film Prof Searle Kochberg: catch his infectious lectures if you can on tour.

excellent summary! If you want to know the depth and breadth of film (or cinema) studies, you need to read this book.

After reading W. Sumerset Maugham's 'The Moon and Sixpence' said to have been based on the life of Paul Gauguin, (can someone tell me why that title?), I decided to read a Gauguin's biography just to see exactly what is meant by "Based on the life of..." means. So naturally I went to the library; free. I checked out Howard Green's book: "Paul Gauguin (First Impressions)"; what luck, it was the only one on the shelf. It is one of the most beautiful books I have ever read and the art work reproduction and colors are just glorious and I am now so turned onto Gauguin's painting and just have to have a copy of this book for my own. The book is wonderfully written and portrays Paul Gauguin as not a very pleasant man, as did Maugham. But how do you separate the Man from his art or his body of work; and should you? What drives someone to dedicate his life to painting and abandon his responsibilities, his children? He's dead now and I can love his art and dislike the man; perhaps great art only comes from great suffering. Can't wait till my copy arrives.

What does the older brother think of the younger one? You see the thoughts of the elder as he contemplates how he would treat his brother as a dog. An older brother would get a laugh, but the younger (if he reads) might not think it is so funny.

I think this book is very well illustrated and extremely funny. It's going to be a family favorite!

Barclay's book on The Letters to the Philippians, Colossians and Thessalonians is an excellent analysis of these books of the Bible.

Barclay provides an introduction to each book before proceeding to a line-by-line, verse-by-verse discussion of the text and its meaning.

The author has a very good understanding of the history and backround of these books and shows detailed knowledge of the language used by Paul. His commentary sheds light on the reasons for Paul's letters and clearly explains the specific guidance Paul was offering to these followers.

Finally, I liked the quotes and short stories Barclay tossed in with his analysis. It's a good book for Bible study. It's easy to read a little bit each day. It's also easy to spend a great deal of time reflecting on the most meaningful passages.

Depending upon your degree of knowledge about vintage guitars and Les Pauls in particular you may find this book a helpful and informative resource or a complete waste of time.

Tony Bacon has written a lot of books on vintage guitars and guitar collecting. I like his stuff, but he very often gets things just plain wrong. I am certain it has more to do with mistakes in the editing process than anything, but there are some nit-picky errors in this book.

The best treatment of Les Pauls and vintage Gibson electrics that I have seen is A.R. Duchossior's excellent and exhaustively researched book "Gibson Electrics - The Classic Years" (published by Hal Leonard).

This little book is a good introduction to the history of this important model and it has some nice photographs of various iterations of the Les Paul model from 1952 to the date of publication in the late 1990s, but if you're looking for a completely comprehensive guide/history to the Les Paul guitar that is 100% accurate this is not it. Still, if you're a guitar nut (like me) it's a nice little book to have.

The book is rather small and thin -- despite that it contains quite a lot of information but unfortunately much of it is in a dry tabular form. That said, what text there is inside is quite enjoyable. The story of the magical 1959 Les Paul is insightful. They varied tremedously as they were hand made by old ladies for the most part -- so the whole concept of a 1959 specification and 1959 is really somewhat flawed. I also like the pictures: 2 of Jimmy Page's Les Pauls and Gary Moore's "Peter Green Les Paul" (yes that Les Paul, the one with the reversed magnetic in the neck pick-up). Some of these guitars have passed into guitar folklore -- they have become well known characters over the last 43 years or so of their existance. Pity they didn't have an image of Eric Clapton's Les Paul -- the one used on the seminal Beano album -- as it was stolen back in the 60's. [There was a rumor recently -- in Guitar Techniques magazine -- that another London professional, Bernie Marsden, is currently playing that guitar but who knows.]. The book should be brought up to date and some holes filled in - hence only 3-stars (actually more like 3.5) but if you like Les Pauls, I mean really like Les Pauls - then you will probably want to take a look at this.

The book is rather small and thin -- despite that it contains quite a lot of information but unfortunately much of it is in a dry tabular form. That said, what text there is inside is quite enjoyable. The story of the magical 1959 Les Paul is insightful. They varied tremedously as they were hand made by old ladies for the most part -- so the whole concept of a 1959 specification and 1959 is really somewhat flawed. I also like the pictures: 2 of Jimmy Page's Les Pauls and Gary Moore's "Peter Green Les Paul" (yes that Les Paul, the one with the reversed magnetic in the neck pick-up). Some of these guitars have passed into guitar folklore -- they have become well known characters over the last 43 years or so of their existance. Pity they didn't have an image of Eric Clapton's Les Paul -- the one used on the seminal Beano album -- as it was stolen back in the 60's. [There was a rumor recently -- in Guitar Techniques magazine -- that another London professional, Bernie Marsden, is currently playing that guitar but who knows.]. The book should be brought up to date and some holes filled in - hence only 4-stars (actually more like 3.5) but if you like Les Pauls, I mean really like Les Pauls - then you will probably want to take a look at this.

I have something you do not, a signed first edition of this book. Unfortunately, the book turned out to be such a dull, bland "text book" that the book was relegated to the 10 cents a pound book sale. Ok, if you pick this book up you are looking to learn something, be taught something about Wall Street and the capital markets, read a discussion on what the problems are with M & A activity, higher PE ratios etc, not the most exciting but interesting. You absolutely cannot do that with this book - it is just so dull that I wonder how the author and editor got through it. Any valuable insight is lost to the reader because they have to keep adjusting the toothpicks holding their eyes open. I would look somewhere else.